Trip Planning and Lessons Learned

Out of the entire blog, this post will probably be the most useful for people planning road trips. If you smply want to check out the events of our trip, the daily trip logs are listed to the right that you can browse.

Now I certainly don’t proclaim myself as a seasoned touring specialist in fact quite the opposite – this was our first major ride. And since each trip brings it own set of challenges some of this may or may not be useful to you. However, we did learn a few things along the way that may helpful in planning potential road trips.

Trip Planning

• They say Its not the destination, it’s the trip... Stay off the interstates and enjoy the back roads. After all, that’s what it’s all about isn’t it? By the way, Google maps (http://maps.google.com) has a great feature that allows you to “avoid highways” when planning your route.


• Sept / October in the Northeast is a spectacular time for a ride. Days are cool and the fall foliage views are incredible.


• If possible, build an extra day (or more) into your plan that is not needed. This will help to account for weather or added sightseeing that may make you run over the initial schedule.


• Our trip legs were too long. 200 - 350 miles a day seems reasonable on a map but it is a lot more than you think it is when riding - especially with gas stops, bio breaks and sightseeing. I read this somewhere while planning the trip and ignored it. Now I understand why they said it. The trip would have been more comfortable especially towards the end of the day after 8 plus hours in the saddle.


• Some people like to wing it a bit more - I’m more of a planner. If you are like me invest some time prior to the trip and get your high level route plugged into the GPS ahead of time. I saved several waypoints into my favorites on the GPS and numbered them for easy access. This really helped cut down the amount of buttons you have to hit while underway in the event of change to your route.


• If it’s possible, don’t reserve your rooms between your stopovers. This may not be practical but not planning your hotel destinations ahead of time will allow for a lot more flexibility on the road especially if you run into weather conditions or interesting sights that take up more time. We took advantage of cashing in some of our frequent flier miles for lodging. Financially this was great but required us to pick the hotel before the trip thereby locking us into to the nightly destination. This forced us to more interstate driving to catch up and longer drive times than we anticipated (or cared for).


• In general, minimize everything you are planning to take. You can live without more than you think you can. So really be conservative with clothes and such. After all it’s gotta fit somewhere and packing will be a feat. Since we had not seen our motorcycle (other than pictures) there was no way to determine how much storage space we actually had available. Planning extra clothes, toiletries and such was an achievement. Additionally what we underestimated was space needed for bike specific items like the cover, tool kit and such. In our situation the CD player was located in one of the saddle bags which took up premium space. Ultimately, we ended up getting a waterproof bag to bungee over the back hardcase which helped out greatly.
  

Helpful Equipment

• A GPS is a must. Some hardcore road warriors might disagree but being the gadget head that I am, this is non-negotiable. We never used half of the features on our Garmin Nuvi until this trip. Being able to locate gas stations, restaurants and other attractions was really great. The only drawback was the GPS was sluggish in major cities due to interference from tall buildings. If you haven’t invested in one yet, check out Garmin’s zumo 400 (http://www.garmin.com). We already owned a 660 and it worked perfectly, but it looks like the 400 has a better setup for a motorcycle (for instance, the power lead to the motorcycle). I had to build a pigtail for our Nuvi 660 to tap into the bikes power – they just don’t make one and I wasn’t willing to invest in another unit at this time. They are pretty costly and one of the advantages of a portable unit is sharing it between vehicles. If you already own a GPS, then check out http://www.ram-mount.com for mounting hardware for your particular unit. They have a great selection tool to narrow down what you need for your model.


• Even though we had a GPS, we still brought a compact road atlas with us. This became very useful in long range planning in conjunction with the GPS. Simply put, a GPS with all of its great qualities was not practical to use when assessing your overall directions, ball parking potential stops or visualizing the route. The Atlas acted as a backup in case something happened to the GPS along the way. Depending on your map size (and your eyesight quality) you may need to invest in a small magnifying glass to bring with you for the map.


• Okay one last item about the GPS… Bring a few baggies with you to keep it dry in case of rain (unless your unit is waterproof). Ram mounts provide more permanent waterproof enclosures for units – but I could not justify the expense, as well as, they were not esthetically pleasing.


• If you planning on riding two up plus luggage on a bike, a communications system rocks! The ability to talk back and forth between rider and passenger while enjoying the sites was great and the trip would not have been the same without it. We bought a portable J&M unit (the Intgratr IV) (http://www.jmcorp.com) at Clays Radio shop (http://www.claysradioshop.com) since our bike didn’t have one build in. The only drawback was that there was uneven volume between my helmet and my wife’s (because of the extra wind noise she was getting).


• Windex Handy Wipes are awesome! Ohio has meaty bugs.


• Bring your own tire gauge, don’t count on gas stations having accurate ones, let alone any at all.


• A compact bike cover was good for parking at night; predominately for security reasons (aka, out of site out of mind…) but for weather also.
  
• Full Face helmets are good. Flip Front Style Helmets are great! Buy yourself smoked lenses – they are better than sun glasses but keep the clear ones with you in case you run out of sunlight. Check out http://www.motodirect.com for good deals and fast shipping.


• Get yourself a Skullcap (aka Do-Rag, aka Babushka) Your helmet and your head will thank you.


• A compact waterproof duffle bag is a must depending on your luggage capacity.


• Don’t forget bungee cords. Don’t bother with the mesh / netting types. They have steel staples between the bungees to keep them in form that could scratch your bike.


• You are going to hit some type of weather and probably in the middle of nowhere. A lightweight compact Goretex rain jacket and pants will keep you warm and dry for a spell. Just be careful around hot exhaust pipes.


• Vented leather jackets (versus synthetic / textile Joe Rocket types) rule for even body temperatures. That is of course until you get stuck in stop and go traffic. The trade off is the textile type jackets have better body armor which you wont appreciate until you need it. In any case Joe Rocket (http://www.joerocket.com) makes a wide variety of well constructed leather and textile jackets although they are a bit pricey. For cheaper options check out Bikers Dream Apparel from Biker Leather Ltd (http://www.nakedleatherbiker.com) available on-line and in most bike shops.


• Lets face it, no matter how comfy your bike seat is, sooner or later your going to get monkey butt (I found this to be the tehnical term used in many articles). Prior to our trip a seasoned rider warned me about this and I did not take heed. Don’t make the same mistake we did. Buy yourself a set of beaded motorcycle seat covers. I wish we had! Believe me – we are very happy with the comfort of our new bike, but after 8 or so hours you can’t help but to start squirming. Here’s a link I found to one type of seat cover that looks pretty good (http://www.beadrider.com). The Motorcycle Cruiser website also has a nice article comparing the different pads that you check out.


• Toll roads suck. Unfortunately they are inevitable. I’m sure seasoned riders have this process worked out but digging for coins and money was a pain in the butt. We worked a system out where my wife managed the money and that seemed to work well. If your solo you may want to check out a coin holder of some type.


• If your gas tank is metal, check into a magnetic leather tank bag. The magnets are strong and sewn into the leather to prevent any scratching of the paint. The bag provides a little extra space for cell phones, wallets and the likes. We bought one that looks like a large fanny sack but there are larger ones. Check out (http://www.motodirect.com).
  

About the Bike Features

• I never understood why you would want cruise control on a bike. After about a 1200 miles ride, now I do. It becomes second nature to turn it on briefly to be able to take your hand off the throttle to rest or make some type of other adjustment.


• Get used to your braking system. They say it in the safety course; its absolutely true. Take the bike in an open parking lot and put the breaks through the paces. In my case linked braking with ABS is a HUGE difference from the vintage brake drums I was used to and it took several hundred miles to smooth out my starts and stops.


• Face it, people don’t pay attention to motorcycles as much these days. In some cases drivers look right through a bike looking for another car or a truck. We had this happen a few times during the trip and you need to stay on guard. With that in mind, preview your bike’s lighting and reflector layout. While riding with some friends of ours they observed that our bike needs more lights/reflectors on the backside than it has. This will be a future adjustment.


• This may be obvious, but If you don’t have cruise control and plan to mount your GPS to your handlebars, it will need to be on the left side. Ours is on the right and I am happy with it there but I have to engage the cruise control if I want to zoom in or mess around with the GPS.

If I think of any other items I'll update this post but this should get you started. Check out the daily trip posts in the archive panel to the right in this blog and drop us a line if you have any questions.